NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Shorter sleep
duration and worse sleep efficiency are independently associated with the
occurrence of hyperglycemia during hospitalization in patients with and without
diabetes, a new study shows.

"While some think sleep loss in the
hospital is inevitable, it's important to note that there are many ways to
improve the sleep environment in the hospital," said Dr. Vineet M. Arora
from the University of Chicago Sleep Metabolism and Health Center.

"This study adds to other studies that
show that sleep loss in the hospital may be linked to worse health outcomes, so
improving sleep in the hospital is more than just a patient experience issue;
it's also about improving health," he told Reuters Health by email.

Earlier works shows that medical patients
sleep an average of two hours less while hospitalized than when at home, Dr.
Arora and colleagues note in a report online November 30 in Diabetes Care; even
a few days of sleep loss can result in impaired glucose tolerance.

Hyperglycemia during hospitalization
contributes to worse patient outcomes, they add, including higher risks of
myocardial infarction and stroke.

The team used data from a prospective
cohort study of sleep in 212 patients >=50 years of age hospitalized on a
general medicine ward to assess whether sleep duration and sleep efficiency
during hospitalization are associated with greater odds of hyperglycemia among
patients with and without diabetes.

Mean objective sleep duration was 318
minutes, and mean sleep efficiency (69.7%) was below the normal threshold of
80%, with similar averages regardless of diabetes status.

Patients had impaired fasting glucose for
14.4% of mornings and hyperglycemia for 24.7% of mornings; mean fasting glucose
and rates of hyperglycemia were higher among patients with diabetes than among
those without.

Each additional hour of sleep in the
hospital the night before was associated with 11% lower odds of having elevated
or hyperglycemic blood glucose levels (p=0.043), and each 10% increase in sleep
efficiency was associated with 18% lower odds of experiencing a higher glucose
category (p

"While this study was not designed to
prove that sleep loss causes high blood sugar in the hospital, it does
highlight that when you see a patient who has worsening blood sugar in the
hospital, you should consider improving their sleep, since it's likely that the
patient is not sleeping well," Dr. Arora said. "Also, we often reach
for medications to control blood sugar right away, and this study suggests that
there may be other factors related to sleep to consider."

The team suggests that future research
should explore whether the sleep disturbances associated with hospitalization
"could be an underlying cause of hyperglycemia," and "if
interventions to optimize sleep duration and quality result in better glucose
control."

Dr.
Koichiro Yoda from Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan,
who recently reported an association between poor sleep quality, poor glycemic
control, and increased arterial thickening in type 2 diabetic patients, said he
was surprised by the new findings.

"This
paper supports the fact that sleep disorder is an environmental factor in the
onset of diabetes," he told Reuters Health by email. "In daily
practice, this report shows the necessity of positively interviewing the state
of sleep (bedding, sleeping, halfway awakening, getting up), and in case it is
insufficient, treatment with sleep hygiene guidance and medication."